• Natural History of the Mediterranean Museum

Suites Marilia, located just 10 minutes by car away from the exhibition, enjoys a strategic position for most of the city's touristic attractions.

Livorno is one of the few cities that enjoys a museum dedicated to the Natural History of the Mediterranean, thanks to the numerous rooms you will be able to discover a new way of observing nature.


The Museum of Natural History of the Mediterranean is located at the ancient Villa Henderson built at the end of the 18th century. The exhibition sectors, renovated and newly built in the 1980s by the architect Giuseppe Milanesi, are located in the modern building adjacent to the villa. Later, other extension work led to the creation of the Sala del Mare dedicated to Mediterranean cetaceans, the result of years of recovery and study of beached specimens on the coast of Livorno. The exhibition is completed by the Hall of Invertebrates, located in the outbuildings along the perimeter of Via dell'Ambrogiana, the Botanical Garden and the Temporary Exhibition Hall accessible at the rear of the villa.

The Museum of Natural History of the Mediterranean offers over 7000 square meters of exhibition space in addition to the educational workshops of the Center for Environmental Education and Research, the collections depots and the spaces of the Congress Center. The Museum is completed by the Scientific Library with reading rooms and a large room for temporary exhibitions.

The Provincial Natural History Museum of Livorno was established in 1929 on the basis of the rich scientific material of the Natural History Cabinet of the Technical Institute "Amerigo Vespucci", collected between 1871 and 1909 by illustrious naturalists from Livorno. Unfortunately, during the bombing of 1944 the natural heritage was destroyed. After the war the Museum was moved to the Municipal Aquarium and in 1952 it was reopened to the public.

In 1980, finally the Museum was transferred to the current headquarters of Villa Henderson, whose main building, completely renovated, houses the operational heart of the Institute.

The recovery and renovation project of the Villa Henderson building complex has led to the definition of two main phases: the first consists of an investigation into the history and conditions of the plant; the second from the application of a specific method with the aim of finding compatible answers both from an architectural and economic point of view. The location of the Museum in Villa Henderson, located between Villa Fabbricotti, Villa Lloyd, Villa Mimbelli and the Terrazza Mascagni (where the aquarium is located), is also intended as the construction of an East-West connection axis, transversal and alternative to the existing routes north-south of the city. Axis that, for the interests that can arouse in the citizens, offers the possibility to decongest the urban center, organizing and redeveloping other sectors of the territory. The ancient image of a museum closed in on itself is thus revised as an element of an open and multi-purpose urban system. In the main building of the eighteenth-century Villa Henderson, connected with the exhibition sector and the auditorium, the technical-administrative sector was organized, which includes the Management, the Secretariat, the offices of the Conservatories, the graphics room, the Workshops for the Groups of study, the Library and the reading room.


For more information, timetables and prices visit the website: Museo di Storia Naturale del Mediterraneo

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